Healing Through Expressive Arts
Valerie Sher, Ph.D.
Healing through the use of expressive arts is a blending of art andtherapy (Malchiodi, 1998). This can include visual art, poetry, movement, clay, sound or music as well as human development, behavior, personality, mental health, and spirituality. It’s easy to see how closely connected these are through Shaun McNiff’s (1989) description of the origin of the word “psyche” as connected to soul, breath and life and it’s original concept which involved a poetic study of the soul. With a psychological approach to the arts as “soulwork”, art therapy can be described as “soul-making”. With the purpose of awakening consciousness to the experience of the soul, the arts are a mode of access to, and expression of, soul. When we are ill mentally or physically, it is said we are ill at the soul level. It is at this place that therapy and expressive arts therapy come together to heal and make whole.
Natalie Rogers (1993), provides a humanistic foundation for expressive arts which includes the belief that all people have an innate ability to be creative, creativity is healing, personal growth and higher states of consciousness are achieved through self-awareness, self-understanding, and insight which are achieved by delving into our emotions. Expressive arts allows us to connect to the life-force of our inner core (or soul) and the essence of all beings. Through our journey inward, we discover our essence and our relatedness to the outer world.
Thus, the use of creative expression as an adjunct to other forms of therapy allows one to move beyond the ordinary sense of self into a higher state of awareness through deep self-knowledge and self-acceptance. By delving deeper and deeper through movement, art and dialogue, insight and meaning into the symbolic and metaphoric messages are revealed from a subconscious and soul level. It is not art for aesthetic purposes, but art for the purpose of expressing and evoking deep inner experiences, not always communicable by words alone, in a journey of self-discovery. This can include feelings, perceptions, and imagination.
There is a distinction between expressive arts facilitation and expressive arts therapy. Expressive arts facilitation focuses more on the inherent healing power of the creative process of the arts (Malchiodi, 1989). This is based on the premise that the process of art making itself is therapeutic. It is sometimes referred to as art as therapy and is an opportunity to express oneself imaginatively and authentically which can lead to personal fulfillment and transformation. Angeles Arrien (reference) invites people to ask themselves when they stopped telling stories, when they stopped dancing or singing and relates our sense of wholeness and connectedness to ourselves with these activities.
Art therapy on the other hand can be used as symbolic communication through drawings or other modalities as tools in communicating issues, emotions and conflicts to enhance the verbal exchange between a client and the therapist. While a therapist may work with both of these aspects of creative expression, many facilitators whom are not licensed therapists may work only with expressive arts facilitation. And while therapists may be interested in interpreting client’s artwork or movement, it is much more important to help the client come up with their own interpretation and go from the universal significance of symbolism to the personal.
References
Malchiodi, C. (1998). The art therapy sourcebook. Los Angeles: Lowell House.
McNiff, S. (1989). Depth psychology of art. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Rogers, N. (1993). The creative connection: expressive arts as healing. Palo Alto: Science & Behavior Books, Inc.